We were a party of 5 who decided to have a nice dinner at your restaurant on Thursday, April 15. We stopped by after my tour of Duke's Labor & Delivery unit, so it was around 7:30. We were quickly seated in the almost empty dining room and our waiter quickly took our drink order. Despite having to remind him to open the bottle of Pellegrino & bringing out the bread late, all seemed fine. Unbeknownst to us there were TWO LARGE GROUPS IN THE PRIVATE ROOMS. Well, that obviously put our orders at the bottom of the list. Priority went to the large groups and we waited for OVER AN HOUR watching plate, after plate, AFTER PLATE leave the kitchen & ours never arrived. Our waiter didn't bring more bread nor did he even really try to get our orders pushed up. All priority went to the big groups where the large tips were guaranteed. Near the end our waiter asked if he could do anything to help this bad experience, but frankly he should have just given us our drinks for free after having us sit there like idiots for so long. Needless to say we asked for the check and left.
We're never returning to Piazza due to this experience. A restaurant that can't handle two private groups with an almost empty main floor has serious issues. I don't appreciate having to wait for my food without a proper explanation or redeeming offers from the staff. I also find it appalling that your head waiter hovered around the kitchen ensuring food for the large parties came out rapidly while ignoring the rest of the restaurant. If a restaurant can't handle it, then for heaven's sake it should close the restaurant for the private groups or WARN OTHER PATRONS BEFORE THEY'RE DUPED INTO WAITING OVER AN HOUR FOR FOOD THAT WAS NEVER GOING TO GET COOKED. They need to reevaluate their priorities and learn to properly treat your guests and accommodate ALL of their patrons even on supposed ""slow"" nights. I'm sure they made a nice amount of money with those groups but by chasing other patrons away they just lost so much more.
Pros: Great ambience and clean
Cons: Poor service
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